


It's Time to Start the Countdown

by anr



Category: NCIS
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-19
Updated: 2010-12-19
Packaged: 2017-11-04 11:26:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/393286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anr/pseuds/anr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The other words she said.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's Time to Start the Countdown

**Author's Note:**

> _False Witness_ (8x10)

Tony's first conversation with Jerry goes something like this:

Jerry: _You're in love with Ziva._  
Tony: _Yes._  
Jerry: _That's... surprisingly honest. Huh._

  


* * *

  


It's not until he gets home, until he's changed into sweats, and popped in a movie, and stretched out on his couch, that he allows himself to remember _everything_ about that moment.

He's already run her final words through his mind a thousand odd times, of course. The way she hesitated before saying _love_. The _you_ at the end. The _we_ at the beginning, that unfortunately he can't change into a royal version of the pronoun, no matter how how many times he recycles the memory. But not the rest of the conversation. Not the way she looked, and smelt, and the frustrated tone to her voice as she tried to explain herself. The touch of her hands on his arms and chest. The _other_ words she said.

Growing up, and recklessness, and not being crazy, and needing balance.

Class clown.

Not, _agent_. Not, _investigator_. Not even, _friend_.

Just, _Tony DiNozzo. Class clown._

  


* * *

  


Tony's second conversation with Jerry goes something like this:

Tony: _It's none of your business what I'm doing, Neisler. Gibbs is in the head._  
Jerry: _Blah blah pop psychology about humour in law enforcement workplaces blah -- have you considered confetti cannons?_  
Tony: _Huh._

  


* * *

  


The spectacle is fun, definitely. He enjoys the setup, the delivery, and their reactions. (The cleaning up after, not so much, but he knew that going in.)

Gibbs puts him on scut work for the rest of the day which, considering he's already _done_ all the scut work, isn't much of a punishment, so.

So. He picks up confetti, and answers the phones, and picks up confetti, and lets Abby and McGee and Ziva give him the silent treatment (the former because he didn't clue her in on the show before it happened so that she could be present for it, the latter because that's their usual reaction to his games), and picks up the pieces.

He does know this much about himself without needing to be told: he's good at that.

  


* * *

  


Tony's last conversation with Jerry goes something like this:

Jerry: _So, what now? An inkwell to blah blah blah?_  
Tony: _Sometimes you're flush and sometimes you're bust, and when you're up, it's never as good as it seems, and when you're down, you never think you'll be up again, but life goes on. Blow, 2001._  
Jerry: _... huh?_

  


* * *

  


_Not that quickly_ , she said. _Class clown_.

But he _did_ change quickly, and while it didn't necessarily make him happy, it didn't make him _un_ happy either. He gets her reaction -- _their_ reactions. He gets that they were surprised, that they were uncomfortable with the suddenness of it all, that they were thrown off balance by the shift in team dynamics. He gets a lot more than they apparently think he does.

He also gets this: regardless of his motives, of their reactions -- he _wants_ to change.

  


* * *

  


Here's what he's not going to do:

 _5\. Run and find another Brenda Bittner and rush into a commitment he doesn't want with some other person just to prove that he's_ not _reckless._  
4\. Set off eight confetti cannons -- again -- in an enclosed space when Ziva is armed. Or unarmed.  
3\. Be serious all the time.  
2\. Be silly all the time.  
1\. Obsess over what she called him. (The rest of what she said means way too much.)

Here's what he _is_ going to do, though maybe more slowly:

_1\. Keep changing._

  


* * *

The End

**Author's Note:**

> ORIGINAL URL: <http://anr.livejournal.com/423499.html>


End file.
